Marion's Retirement

[Maid Marion]

The wheelchair ramp is a public accomodation.  Strangers I don't know use it all the time to make house calls. I can convert the section in front of my house into a private deck! I can do the same with the other section by installing a gate so folks can't use it.

Transgender swing thought.  When playing golf we often think of stuff to remind us how to swing properly.  I've increased my distance by holding my hands farther away from my body, for a bigger lever.
I do this my thinking how I'd hold my hands it I had breast enhancement surgery!  I wouldn't want them to get in the way of my swing!

[Maid Marion]

I ordered the pre-made steps from Amazon for $100 and sholuld get them in about a week.

I saw the neighbor working on her yard, clearing away tree branches from her meditation garden.
I got permission to come over and remove the invasive vines in her yard next to my yard. It was a task she'd been putting off. I took care of the ones on my side of the yard last year.

Now that I'm retired I have enough time to get good at playing golf the same way most good golfers learn--by playing a ton on a cheap golf course!  It isn't that we lose the ability to learn as we get older.  We just don't have the big blocks of time to learn that we had when we were younger.

[Lori Dee]

I ordered the pre-made steps from Amazon for $100 and sholuld get them in about a week.

I saw the neighbor working on her yard, clearing away tree branches from her meditation garden.
I got permission to come over and remove the invasive vines in her yard next to my yard. It was a task she'd been putting off. I took care of the ones on my side of the yard last year.

Now that I'm retired I have enough time to get good at playing golf the same way most good golfers learn--by playing a ton on a cheap golf course!  It isn't that we lose the ability to learn as we get older.  We just don't have the big blocks of time to learn that we had when we were younger.

And staying active promotes good health and a long life.
The secret to immortality is very simple: Don't die.
The secret to defeating death is to stay healthy for as long as possible. 
 

[Maid Marion]

The stairs arrived yesterday!  I think I'll put them together and leave them on the "deck to be" to slowly alert the delivery people.  I got a 4ft wide planter to put in the way when I make the change to block off the ramp from use, yet leave it available in an emergency. I may try to grow strawberries under hardware cloth to keep the birds and rodents away.  If I put wheels on it I can move it away when I spray the roses with fungicides.

A very useful skill I learned for girls is touch typing in the mid 1970s.  The class was over 90% girls.
I touch type very quickly.  It was incredibly useful when I took computer science classes in college.  I can touch type while talking to someone.  A co-worker was amazed that I could do that!

I made some really good meals out of beef short ribs in the bone. It was on sale.  I'd cook one strip of bacon early in the morning, before sunrise, and then braise a large short rib on all sides in the hot bacon fat. After the meat was browned I'd turn off the heat and pre-cook the veggies in the bacon fat.  Then I'd dump the meat and veggies in a tiny 1.5qt slow cooker with 1 cup water and 1tsp better than bouillon.  I'd let it cook for an hour or so, then drop the temperature down to low so it wouldn't boil.  190 is a good target temperature.  The temperature can be lowered by adding water.  I'd let it cook for a good 8 hours or so, then turn off the heat to let it cool down for eating.

[Lori Dee]

A very useful skill I learned for girls is touch typing in the mid 1970s.  The class was over 90% girls.
I touch type very quickly.  It was incredibly useful when I took computer science classes in college.  I can touch type while talking to someone.  A co-worker was amazed that I could do that!

I never mastered that skill. I took a typing class in high school, but never broke the habit of watching the keyboard as I type with six fingers (three on each hand). The teacher was more concerned with speed and accuracy, so I became good at memorizing a paragraph at a time. Since I watched the keyboard, my accuracy was always over 95% because I could catch my errors right away. In computer classes in college, it was always about accuracy, not speed, so I did ok there, too.

I am always impressed with touch typists, especially if you are talking on the phone while typing. One of my doctors does that. While we are talking, she is furiously typing her notes on her laptop.

Sounds like the deck project is coming along nicely. Adding wheels to the planter is a clever idea!

[Maid Marion]

I often explain my cross dressing to random partners I play with, telling them that I'm too small to buy appropriate guy clothes.  Once in a great while someone will bring up boy clothes and I'll point out that the fit is terrible for someone with a thin athletic build.  I think many are impressed with how well my clothes fit me.  I've had a lot of golfers say they would like to play again with me.  During the round they will make comments like I've never hit it this far!

I reshafted a $3 club I bought at Savers.  This is way beyond the skill level of most golfers--swapping shafts between clubs to get two custom clubs at very low price! A new wedge off the shelf would have cost me $150.  Golfers can spend a lot more than that getting fitted for custom clubs.
I played with it yesterday and it works great as I designed it to be a "sister" to a wedge I use frequently.  Not a twin, as it is hard to tell twins apart.
But a sister, with different strengths and weaknesses but with the same core genetics.

[Maid Marion]

I bought a new mailbox so I can have two mail boxes in place during the transition between having a public wheelchair ramp and a private deck in front of my front door.  I'll then use the old mailbox to hold garden tools in the back yard out of the rain. 

The cedar planter arrived today, delivered by UPS.  It is made in Canada and apparenty not subject to tariffs, as I think I would have had to pay a bill before I received it. 

[Maid Marion]

I love shopping for bargains and own a ton of clothes and shoes.  I have a shoe rack with three dozen pairs!  Yesterday I put together an outfit that perfectly complemented a pair of lavender,red, and pink striped sandals.  I wore a pink bucket hat, red and pink print on white shirt, and lavender pants.
The shirt was sized XS petite with 3/4 sleeves so you could see my silver watch with a rose face.  The pants were cut off just below the knee.

An older lady working in a grocery store stared and smiled at me.  I think she wished she looked as good as I did in that outfit!  There are two opposing fashion rules.  When you are small you want have matching tops to have longer lines.  When you have an narrow waisted hourglass figure you should flaunt it!  I showed off my figure with clothes that were appropriate for my age and for the situation at hand!